Lane Says Last Week's Abysmal Primary Turnout Proves That Now Is The Time For Major Electoral Reform In New York City

posted by James Lane | 4595.60pc
September 19, 2017

September 19, 2017 (New York, NY) -- James Lane, the Green Party candidate for Public Advocate of New York City, called today for an end to costly primary elections by completely transformation our electoral processes.

"Last Tuesday we've seen yet another sham of democracy where incumbent Democrats celebrated landslide victories with only 14% of their party registrants voting in the primary" said Lane, "It's unconscionable that anybody running for the Democratic nomination would consider such a low voter acceptable since they clearly do not represent a quorum of at least 50% of its members."

"Rather than wasting millions of dollars on candidates trying to knock each other off the November ballot, these funds would be much better invested in improving city's crumbling infrastructure and social services" noted Lane.

James Lane pledges that if he becomes the city's first ever Green Party Public Advocate he would lead the charge in transforming New York City's election processes to allow for greater levels of citizen participation and true democracy by instituting the following:

Give taxpaying immigrants the right to vote in all local elections, because New York City shouldn't support taxation without representation

Eliminate primaries by allowing Ranked Choice Voting in the general election where voters may select candidates in their order of preference

Restructure our Campaign Finance Board's Matching Fund Program to allow fair and equal for public funding for ALL qualified candidates

Make November's Election Day an official New York City holiday and allow for early for voting in Special Elections to increase voter turnout

"Above all, our campaign is dedicated to massive system change as many of the problems that are impacting our fellow New York residents today have been continually ignored by an administration that was elected in 2013 where only 24% of registered voters participated" Lane concluded.

ABOUT JAMES LANE

James Lane is not a career politician, he is an independent musician, a citizen journalist, an internet media professional and has been a Green Party activist for over 16 years. In 2013 he was the Green Party candidate for New York City Public Advocate and in 2015 he ran for Congress against the Republican candidate Dan Donovan who was the District Attorney that failed to indict anyone in the killing of Eric Garner. James is a lifelong resident of New York City that was born in Flushing, raised in Harlem, matured in Hell’s Kitchen and currently living in Park Slope. James is married and has a young child in New York City’s public school system.